Transparency again

Published: Monday, 02/11/2002 12:00 am EST

Bravo to Liberal MP John Bryden. The diminutive Ontario government backbencher and former journalist is fighting to get the expense accounts for ministerial staffers publicly released and he's not giving up. He's been vocal in the House, in committee and in the media. An advocate for freedom of information, he's been scoffing at Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard's argument that the exemption for ministerial staffers is to respect privacy laws. Mr. Bryden also pressed to get Justice Department officials to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to explain why they recommend access-to-information rules be changed so that ministers' expense accounts are no longer public. Hopefully this will happen soon. Mr. Bryden says Justice Department officials decided last year that ministers and their political staffers no longer qualify as officials of government institutions. This opinion, which was later implemented by Treasury Board as guidelines to all government departments, was based on a 1997 Supreme Court decision on privacy law, the federal government says.

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Transparency again

Feb. 11, 2002

Bravo to Liberal MP John Bryden. The diminutive Ontario government backbencher and former journalist is fighting to get the expense accounts for ministerial staffers publicly released and he's not giving up. He's been vocal in the House, in committee and in the media. An advocate for freedom of information, he's been scoffing at Treasury Board President Lucienne Robillard's argument that the exemption for ministerial staffers is to respect privacy laws. Mr. Bryden also pressed to get Justice Department officials to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to explain why they recommend access-to-information rules be changed so that ministers' expense accounts are no longer public. Hopefully this will happen soon. Mr. Bryden says Justice Department officials decided last year that ministers and their political staffers no longer qualify as officials of government institutions. This opinion, which was later implemented by Treasury Board as guidelines to all government departments, was based on a 1997 Supreme Court decision on privacy law, the federal government says.